


Like a True Father

by SaraJaye



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Crying, Family Feels, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:20:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25173766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: Felix thought his father's true love was knighthood, making it easy to hate him and push him away. An ugly run-in with bandits proves him wrong.
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Rodrigue Achille Fraldarius
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32
Collections: FE3H Kink Meme





	Like a True Father

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt** : Rodrigue is seriously injured after taking a blow for Felix and the two have a talk afterwards. Would love for Felix to start off pissed but end crying because he feels bad for being so hostile towards Rodrigue for so long when he was grieving Glenn’s lose just like he was.
> 
> +Felix is initially panicked when Rodrigue goes down on the battlefield and starts screaming for a healer  
> ++Rodrigue tells Felix he loves him (Please...)  
> +++Pre-timeskip (maybe during Felix’s paralogue 👀)

A measly pack of bandits should have been peanuts to the old man, even if he came begging Felix for help. As usual his father carries himself proudly, high in the saddle, lance held aloft and thunderbolts striking down two bandits for every one Felix takes care of.

He's not going to let his father get to him, though, not this time. He came to save innocents and hone his blade. So he shuts his ears and eyes to everything but that blade, cutting his way through bandit after bandit. _Three, four, five, six._ Counting his number of wins relaxes him, he finds. Keeps his mind focused.

" _Felix!_ " The sharp click of hooves fills his ears and he leaps backwards, dropping his sword, looking up just in time to see his father fall from his mount as the arrow pierces his chest. It's only then that Felix realizes an archer had been sneaking up behind him the whole time but he can't even take a moment to feel stupid or weak as his father reaches up with a trembling hand. "Felix...you're safe..."

His eyes fall closed, and Felix screams for Mercedes and Professor Manuela to _hurry the hell over here,_ do something, stop the bleeding, _make him open his damn eyes!_ He can't pay attention to the rest of the battle, barely even batting an eyelash when the leader goes down and the professor announces the village is safe.

"He's alive," Mercedes whispers, "but it was a bad cut. He's lost a lot of blood..."

The villagers take him to the house of healing, Felix following in silence. He plunks down in a chair in the corner, staring at his feet. Anger overwhelms him, anger at his father for being so _stupid_ and at himself for not noticing a damn archer he could have knocked out in a single stroke and at those _fucking bandits_ for causing this trouble in the first place.

It's very touch and go for a while, to the point where Manuela tells him he might as well go kill some time. So Felix goes outside and paces in front of the house because right now he can't think of anything else to do. Even training or sparring has no appeal whatsoever.

_He's alive now, but what if he doesn't make it? What then, huh? Will the boar and everyone else say the same shitty thing the old man did when Glenn died? That it's better he died like a true knight to be romanticized in stupid stories because it's more honorable to be a corpse than to live another day with your family?_

Feelings prick at the back of his eyes, and he brushes them off. Strength comes from anger, not crying like the pathetic child he used to be. _You were an idiot then and you're an idiot now, old man._

The scene won't stop playing over and over again in his head. Father's voice, his horse charging forward, the arrow flying through the air, the blood, _the blood, so much of it, staining the ground, Father looking as good as dead..._ Felix clenches a fist, trying to force the images away, but that only makes them stronger.

_He died like a true knight._

He's practically worn a track in the dirt by the time Mercedes comes out, and he goes still. _Just get it over with, he's dead, he'll be celebrated as a true-_

"He's awake now, Felix, and he wants to see you." Well, at least now he won't have to hear those same stupid words.

"Fine." He follows her into the house, forcing a mask of cold neutrality. But the moment he lays eyes on his father, looking pale and tired with bandages wrapped around his chest, his stomach clenches. Mercedes pats his shoulder gently before she quietly leaves the room. Felix collapses into a chair beside the bed, anger and something else bubbling up in him, almost blinding him.

"Felix." His father's voice is weak, but he's smiling. Felix glares at him, clenching his fist, trying not to look at the bandages.

"You didn't have to do that," he says. "I thought the boar could be reckless, but you were just flat-out _stupid._ It was an arrow, I've been hit by stronger than that." His father shakes his head.

"I couldn't live with myself if it hit you." The words awaken a pang in Felix, cutting through the anger he tries to hold onto.

"So you'd rather die than see me get a little scratched up? Is that it?" he scoffs. "Just another part of your _knightly pride,_ old man? Better to die a glorious death for the bards to sing about than to live with someone getting a wound they'd eventually heal from anyway?" He shakes his head. "You always did love your lofty ideals more than anything, didn't you."

"Felix-"

"Did you even _think_ about the people who'd miss you if you died?" Felix cuts him off. "What it'd do to the boar? To Mother, waiting back home for us?" His voice breaks. "To _me?_ " And then the tears are falling before he can stop them, it's the first time he's ever really considered how he'd feel if his father actually _did_ die. His father is a knight, a man who would throw himself on a sword if the king's ghost suddenly appeared and told him to. His first love has and always will be the kingdom. It's what Felix has told himself for the last four years to justify his hatred.

He'd never once considered that underneath it all, maybe his father _did_ love his family as much as he loved his kingdom. That the moment of his death would be not for glory and honor, but for one person.

"Felix..." His name again, soft and tired, his father's hand slowly reaching up to cup his chin. "Don't cry..." That only brings more tears; in the old days, before everything went to hell, that was a common saying around Fraldarius. _Don't cry, Felix._ Every time he skinned his knee, bumped his elbow, had a fight with Dimitri, lost a spar, wasn't allowed to bring home the kittens he found by the stables. When Father said it, he'd pat Felix's head and wrap an arm around him, reminding him of his heritage. _You're a Fraldarius, be strong, be brave._

"I'm not a child," he mutters, sniffling.

"You're _my_ child," father says gently. "Even when you're a man, you'll always be my child, and I'll always be proud of this fact." Felix dares to look up, tears clouding his vision, and his father is smiling. For the first time in forever he doesn't see a mindless slave to his ideals, but a man.

_A man I've been a complete dick to for four years because he didn't understand my feelings, when I didn't understand his._

"I'm sorry."

"Don't." Father's hand moves from his chin to his shoulder. "I said what I did that day to comfort myself, Felix. Looking back, it was the worst possible thing I could have said to a boy who'd just lost his brother."

"But I shouldn't have hit you for it," Felix says. The bruise he left on his father's cheek healed quickly, Mother's disappointment faded, but Felix's guilt never did no matter how deep he tried to bury it. "When Glenn died, I realized that knighthood and chivalry were just fancy words for death. All I could think about was how my brother would never come home again." He swallows. "And when you got hit, when I saw all the blood, I..."

"Felix." Father squeezes his shoulder. "Even if I had died in that moment, I would die knowing I protected someone I love. The way a father should."

"In other words, dying like a true father?" He's not sure whether it's sarcasm or not, but Father laughs regardless.

"Exactly." He squeezes again. "I love you, Felix. Even if we'll never see eye to eye on certain things, I love you, and I'm glad you're my son." Felix rolls his eyes, even as a smile threatens to tug at the corners of his mouth.

"You had to make it sappy, didn't you." Of course deep down he feels the same way, it's his _father,_ but it's embarrassing enough that he burst into tears and spilled emotions all over as it is.

"Just let me have this." Father squeezes his hand. "I'd love to give you a big hug right now, but Mercedes advised me not to move for a little while. So this will have to do." And Felix sighs, letting himself smile a little.

"It's more than enough."

**Author's Note:**

> Felix's mother is usually dead in my fics, but a prompt on page 30 made me want to toy with the idea of her still being alive.


End file.
